During their onscreen wedding, Zanab slammed Cole and said, “You have disrespected me, you have insulted me, you have critiqued me, and… single-handedly shattered my self-confidence”
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This post contains spoilers from the season 3 finale of Love Is Blind.
It appears love truly was not blind for Cole Barnett and Zanab Jaffrey.
The couple, who met and got engaged on season 3 of Love Is Blind, had a very dramatic ending to their love story as Zanab, 32, said “I don’t” to Cole at the altar following several ups and downs in their relationship.
“You have disrespected me, you have insulted me, you have critiqued me, and for what it’s worth, you have single-handedly shattered my self-confidence,” she told Cole in front of their wedding guests. “And the messed up thing is I know love you… but love shouldn’t feel this way. I can’t marry you.”
Cole, 27, was left stunned and in tears, telling the cameras, “Why has she never said that to my face? She chose now because she knew it would hurt more in front of all my friends and family… She had me fooled big time. I knew we were not perfect but that? It’s one of the worst experiences of my life.”
Though some fans might have been shocked by Zanab’s comments, she tells PEOPLE exclusively, “I did not stand up there and say no to the Cole that everyone got to see. There was a lot more.”
“I stand by everything I said,” she adds, before detailing the status of their current relationship. “We do not speak. We didn’t really leave a friendship or a mutual respect, I think, for each other to have. So there isn’t communication between the two of us.”
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As Zanab suggested, there was allegedly much more than unfolded between them. Fans got a glimpse of the drama during the season 3 reunion, in which Zanab claimed Cole repeatedly tried to control her eating habits and got another woman’s number before kissing her at his bachelor party. (Cole denied all of the accusations, though Zanab insisted he told her about the woman himself.)
Another issue between Cole and Zanab was the fact that Cole’s family refused to be part of their Love Is Blind journey. For Zanab, that didn’t sit well, especially since she had lost both her biological parents.
When asked by PEOPLE if she thinks things would’ve changed had Cole’s family been a part of their journey, Zanab confidently says, “I really do.”
“Not to toot my own horn; parents love me,” she shares. “I would’ve loved the chance to meet them, win them over, maybe if Cole had the support of his family. I did get to meet some of his friends and they said, ‘Wow, we love her for you.’ I do think when we had our highs, I brought out a different side of Cole and I think maybe we wouldn’t have ended up where we did. So I do think it could have made a difference? Absolutely.”
Despite that, Zanab says she has no regrets about the way her journey panned out on the show.
“Cole was my person. Cole was the only person in that experiment for me, so I am glad I chose him. I’m glad he taught me what he did, and I’m glad I got to see who he really is,” she says.
